Helping people find what they need on Google

Google is by far the most used search engine in the U.S., with an estimated 7 billion search queries on the site last month.

But most people don’t know how to use Google to the fullest.

A new Seattle-area startup, led by five-time entrepreneur Victor Alhadeff, is hoping to change that with a series of online training modules designed to help people more effectively search for news articles, research reports and anything else they want to find through Google.

Boost eLearning offers 20 separate lessons that teach people skills such as finding documents in specific file formats, looking for information by date range and searching cached Web pages. The online lessons, which cost a total of $29.95, range from five to 15 minutes in length.

Alhadeff, who founded Egghead Software and Catapult Software Training in the 1980s and the now-defunct Briazz retail sandwich chain in the 1990s, came up with the idea after discovering that many Google users were not finding the information they wanted in a timely fashion. That was also the case for Alhadeff, who started to use new search tricks on Google to find information about his recent bout with cancer.

To his surprise, no one had created an easy-to-use online training program that discussed some of the basic search commands on Google.

“The fact is, most people are simply unaware of the full functionality of the product,” said Alhadeff, who created Boost eLearning with his son, Jeffrey, and former Egghead Software executive Gary Thede.

Alhadeff says that companies can save time and money with Google, adding that it is “kind of magic what you can accomplish” when utilizing handy search commands and tools. For example, Alhadeff offered an example of finding information about Boeing in French newspapers during the past few months. He then limited the scope of the Boeing search to find PowerPoint demonstrations about the aerospace company.

That sort of functionality could be of tremendous use to a contractor or investor conducting research on Boeing.

“It is all easy. It is just relatively unknown,” says Alhadeff.

Google itself does try to make its product as easy to use as possible, but Alhadeff said most of the formal training programs available today are designed to teach people how to build advertising campaigns rather than find information.

Alhadeff concedes that there are few barriers to entry that would prevent others or Google itself from launching a competing service. But the 62-year-old entrepreneur says that’s the case with a lot of businesses.

“By being first to market, by having a high quality product and by providing high levels of service, I think you can build a brand and establish yourself as a premier resource,” he says.

It is unclear how many people will actually pay for instructions on how to better use Google, but Alhadeff calls it a “virgin market” that has yet to be tapped. And he says no one has really focused on e-learning products for Google that help professionals do their jobs better.

“Within a corporation people are using Google every day, whether it is sales, marketing, research and development, human resources and recruiting,” says Alhadeff. “The product is ubiquitous in its business use, and yet people are not taking advantage of the functionality.”

Alhadeff has self-funded the startup to date, noting that it is unlikely that the company will raise money anytime soon.

“It is a classic startup,” says Alhadeff, who developed plenty of experience in the training market at Catapult.

That company — which grew to about $80 million in annual revenue and hundreds of employees — was sold to IBM in 1993.

Alhadeff doesn’t know if Boost eLearning could grow to Catapult’s size, but he says the overall trends of online training are favorable. With companies spending an estimated $55 billion on training and looking at ways to make employees more efficient, Alhadeff says there is plenty of room to maneuver.

“We think the Google piece of it is an overlooked piece,” he says. “People just take for granted that everybody Googles and nobody stops and thinks twice about the inefficiency in the process.”